Washington (Aug. 15, 2024) – Friday marks two years since President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law.
Alexandra Adams, senior advisor to the NRDC Action Fund, made the following statement:
“This is what it looks like for government to work on behalf of the people. Two years on, the strongest climate action ever has become one of the most successful laws in decades.
“Not one Republican voted for it – in the House or Senate. The GOP has tried more than 40 times to gut it. Trump has vowed to rip up climate gains root and branch as payback to billionaire oil and gas donors and other big polluters.
“We’re not going back. Vice President Harris has served for two decades on the front lines of climate and justice leadership. She’s ready to raise ambition higher from day-one as president. That’s the climate leadership we need.”
Background on gains since the climate and clean energy law was enacted two years ago:
The Inflation Reduction Act contains the strongest climate action ever, part of a suite of strategic policies from the Biden-Harris administration and Congress that have strengthened the economy and positioned the country to cut climate pollution up to 56 percent below 2005 levels by 2035.
Two years after Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, its climate and clean energy incentives are driving a heartland manufacturing renaissance with clean energy at its core – at least $126 billion worth of new factories to make solar panels, electric vehicles, advanced batteries and more.
These incentives are helping to:
· Create nearly 110,000 good-paying jobs, and counting, in red states and blue.
· Strengthen the domestic supply chain for the building blocks of a modern economy.
· Make the country more energy secure, by reducing our reliance on the fossil fuels that pad the war chests of belligerent petro states like Russia.
· Position U.S. workers and businesses for success in a global clean energy market worth a record $1.8 trillion last year alone.
· Make the country more equitable. More than 80 percent of the investment is going to places that need the help – historically underserved counties where wages and employment rates are below the national average.
· Boost the cumulative investment in U.S. electric vehicles and batteries to a staggering $312 billion – eclipsing the $243 billion on track to flow into the industry in China to make the United States the world leader in electric vehicle and battery investment.
· The incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act are lowering costs, saving U.S. families up to $38 billion on electricity, over time, and reducing power bills around 15 percent, on average, by 2030.
· Last year alone, these incentives saved more than 3.4 million families a total of $8.4 billion on clean energy and efficiency upgrades that will lower utility bills.
· So far this year, low-income and middle-income drivers have saved more than $1 billion on the purchase of electric vehicles – new and used – with additional savings on gas and maintenance averaging $1,750 per vehicle each year.
· These incentives are helping to cut the greenhouse gas emissions driving the climate crisis.
· The incentives fit hand in glove with standards the Biden-Harris administration put in place to:
· curb emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that’s 28 times worse for the climate than carbon dioxide, from oil and gas operations;
· cut tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks;
· clean up dirty power plants;
Taken together, and done right, these incentives and standards have positioned the country to cut greenhouse gas emissions as much as 56 percent below 2005 levels by 2035.
In tandem, these federal policies will help cut carbon pollution in the power sector by 65 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, and 80 percent by 2035.
What’s important now is to build on this progress, not slam it into reverse.
Vice President Harris has been a driving force for this progress. She’s ready to advance these climate and economic gains from day-one as president. She’s ready to lead by example abroad and confront the climate crisis with the urgency it demands.
Her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, has said he’ll slam climate progress into reverse, as payback to billionaire oil and gas donors and other big polluters.
As president, Trump waged the worst White House assault in history on the environment and public health. He’s called climate change a hoax, said wind turbines cause cancer, and urged drivers to burn more gasoline and shredded U.S. climate policy. Just the other day, he said climate change is okay because it creates “more oceanfront property.”
Some three-quarters of the investment sparked by the Inflation Reduction Act is going to congressional districts held by Republicans.
Every Republican, in the Senate and the House, voted against the Inflation Reduction Act and the manifest benefits it’s brought to the country.
Since it passed, Republicans have tried more than 40 times to gut it.
The MAGA manifesto, Project 2025 (pg 365), calls for the Inflation Reduction Act to be repealed.
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